Why has East Coast never given me compensation after my trip to Leeds was delayed by more than two hours?

I was on an East Coast train with a friend last May as we travelled from London to Leeds. On the outbound journey our train was stationary for about 45 minutes just north of London. We paid £160 for two tickets.

The journey resumed, but shortly after it did the driver informed us that there was a fault with the line ahead and so our train would terminate at Newark North Gate and there was no immediate train to Leeds.

Fortunately another friend was driving up to Leeds to he came and picked us up, but it was past 9.30pm by the time we got in, well over two hours later than we were due to arrive on the train.

Delay repay: East Coast provides compensation for any delays longer than 30 minutes.

I filled out a compensation claim with East Coast within 28 days after the journey, as stated in East Coast's terms and conditions, but it's almost a year later and I haven't heard anything. Can you help?S.M., via email.

Adam Uren, of This is Money, says: Under the Government's 'Delay Repay' compensation scheme, which state-owned East Coast is signed up to - any journey that is delayed for longer than 30 minutes entitles passengers to compensation, irrespective of the cause of the delay.

If your delay is 30 to 59 minutes you get 50 per cent of a single ticket or half of the cost of the delayed leg of a return journey.

If it's 60 to 119 minutes, it's 100 per cent of a single ticket or the delayed leg of a return journey.

As you were delayed for more than two hours, you are entitled to a 100 per cent refund of a single ticket or the full refund of both legs of your return journey.

It seems though that, even though you are adamant you sent all the relevant documents, copies of your tickets were did not make it through to the right department. Nonetheless once I gave them a call they quickly got to the bottom of the issue.

A spokesman said: 'The journey was delayed due to a track fault on the line north of Newark.

'From our records, it seems the passenger's refund claim was transferred to our website customer support team, but they did not receive copies of his travel tickets to validate the claim.

'We will of course refund the full cost of his return journey, and as a gesture of goodwill we will also provide a replacement return ticket. We apologise to him for the delay.'